here's how I got started...

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Two Cate questions...AND...THE winner!

Sorry...you gotta read this great info from Cate before we get to that....

But first.........

THANK YOU from both Cate & I for the comments. We sincerely appreciate it.

THANKS from Rick & I too, for the sweet congrats posts, emails & we even got a CUSTOM SINGING video from Paper Patti. That was just toooooo cute! Rick thinks she should dump Ranger & take her act on the road!! THANKS PATTI!

Rick was happy that there were no comments about how DORKY we looked! Oh well...we sure thought we were pretty stylish 36 years ago... I thought the photo would be worth a laugh.

Now on to business... 2 questions from blog readers...

I thought these questions were very interesting & I enjoyed hearing Cate's insight.............

My question is what is your idea of a self portrait? What would be the first step to do a self portrait?

My idea of a self-portrait is a visual representation of who you are. There are many exercises in the book that help you get to know yourself. One involves looking around the room you spend the most time in, or even your whole house, as an objective observer or detective to see "who lives here." And then you put together a self-portrait based on that. For a more "realistic" self-portrait, you can start by tracing your image from the mirror onto a transparency and then "coloring it in." Or, you can take pictures of yourself in different situations, or take pictures of different body parts. I guess my idea of a self-portrait is something that has no rules because it doesn't have to be for anyone else, just you. Once you get started, though, it's hard to stop!

From another blog commenter...

Now, here is my question for Cate.

How does one go about doing a self-portrait and/or altered page about some very painful issues?? Are there any techniques you use to try and 'work through' the process so you know what kind of page you want to create?? When you've got so much to get out...how do you get it all out and onto paper???Thanks for taking the time to answer. :-) >

Creating a self-portrait, or a series of self-portraits, is an excellent way to work through painful issues and experiences in your life. In fact, several of the artists in Mixed-Media Self-Portraits address this issues, and we even include some art therapy websites to use as resources.

Here are some ideas:

1. Take a picture of yourself from now or from the painful period of time and alter it (you may want to make a copy first) using digital or mixed-media techniques, to show how you feel about that time in your life. Color it red for rage or doodle on it with words that express your sadness or confusion. Alter it to show how you wish you might have been at that time.

2. Make a self-portrait in the style of a collaged journal page. If this is just for you, tear out images from magazines, or incorporate your own photos and drawings. Write out your feelings using markers in colors that represent your emotions. Don't think about making a masterpiece--it's the process that heals.

3. Paint, draw, color with crayons or use any other favorite medium to make a series of pictures of yourself, varying each one. This is an exercise--don't strive for perfection or visual accuracy. Just think about an incident or an emotion and draw yourself in that state. How do your eyes look? Your mouth? Your hair. Finish each one quickly (5-10 minutes) and then move on to the next one, using a different moment or feeling as the inspiration. Repeat until you feel you have put all of your feelings out on paper. You might want to come back in a day to see what you've done, or you might want to keep moving right then. Look at all of your quick portraits and take the parts of them that speak to your pain and put them together, either by copying aspects of what you've already done or tearing up the quick portraits and collaging the "best" pieces together into one portrait.

THANKS CATE!!! This is wonderful info.

AND.....................

DRUMROLL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The lucky winner of Cate's **signed ** book is.........................

...chosen by the Random generator...#2

Congrats to ANNETTE!!

Here's her post...

Annette said...OK, I'm not kidding, I want this book really bad! I have been really intrigued by self-portraits this past year. Perhaps it would be the ideal project to follow up my "All About Me" scrapbook I completed and taught last year. It was such a great journey. I should do a self-portrait to bring it all together! I will be pondering this all day....hmmm....

Yea! I'm so excited! I WILL LOVE this book and look forward to exploring it! Wendy, I sent you an email with my address, but it won't go through...??? So I forwarded it to Sherri to see if she could get it to you. Thanks so much!